Nintendo Power‘s last issue coming in December (update: Nintendo confirms)

Venerable brand to shut down after 24 years.

FURTHER UPDATE (8/22/12): Nintendo has confirmed the news of Nintendo Power's closing, which we first reported yesterday, saying that the magazine will cease publishing at the end of the year. “Nintendo can confirm that Future US will end the production of Nintendo Power magazine with the last issue slated for December 2012," the company said in a statement, directing users to a customer service page for subscription inquiries.

Nintendo also seemed to cut off the possibility that it might once again publish the magazine internally. "Nintendo Power magazine is closing and is not moving to a new publisher," a spokesperson said. "We have nothing further to announce at this time.”

Gamers of a certain age likely remember the days when their main fix of information about new and upcoming video games came in the form of the monthly Nintendo Power magazine that was delivered directly to their mailbox. That experience is set to become yet another relic of a past era, as Ars Technica has learned that Future Publishing is planning to stop publishing the magazine.

Nintendo Power is one of the longest-running game magazines in the country, having been published continuously since the summer of 1988, when it started as a bi-monthly outgrowth of the previous Nintendo Fun Club newsletter. the magazine went monthly in 1990, with Nintendo producing articles that were often just thinly veiled marketing copy through late 2007, when it started contracting the brand out for a more independent angle from tech-and-game-focused Future Publishing.

But our source says that Nintendo, which was always "difficult to work with," was uninterested in renewing that contract or in taking part in a number of digital initiatives that Future saw as necessary for the long-term health of the brand. He added that Nintendo doesn't seem interested in taking over direct control of the magazine again (Nintendo and Future representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story).

Nintendo Power editors and staffers were told of the magazine's impending shuttering last week, the source said, and are currently being transitioned to work on other Future properties, including GamesRadar and MacLife magazine. The move should not affect Future's other gaming magazines, which include official periodicals for the PlayStation and Xbox brands, as well as Best Buy's @Gamer.

It's unclear exactly how many more issues of Nintendo Power are planned after the recently published August issue (its 281st), or how current subscribers will be compensated. Nintendo Power enjoys a total monthly readership of 475,000, according to Future press materials.

Nintendo Power's shuttering comes during a time of continuing struggles for the US magazine industry, which saw overall circulation numbers decline 10 percent in the first half of 2012. Gamers have increasingly come to rely on online sources for more timely and less space-limited gaming coverage, leading the venerable GamePro magazine to stop publishing late last year after 23 years in print.

There is at least one bright spot in the world of printed game magazines. Game Informer rose to become the third most popular magazine in the country this year, with nearly 6 million subscribers that were mostly gained through its point-of-sale relationship with mega-retailer GameStop.

Promoted Comments

Nintendo Power was the highlight of my month when I was in middle school in the early '00s... though I concede that the modern internet has basically eliminated the need for it. RIP, I'll never forget the running gag of the editor who was always a slime plushie in photographs and I'll always be appreciative that it was a kid-friendly publication that was not excessively kiddie.

Actually, here's a memory for you. There was a new boy in our neighborhood who had moved here from Guatemala and did not yet speak any English. He came and sat down next to me and pointed at the magazine and we discovered that we had some words in common already: "Mario" and "Zelda". He was a friend for many years after that.

357 posts | registered Apr 14, 2010

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

Wow, that's a bummer. I'm actually still a subscriber. The first issue I ever received was #4 (with Zelda II on the cover).

I'll be sad to see it go from a sentimental point of view, although I really preferred it in its pre-N64 days. It was also never the same after they stopped the game strategy guides, the codes and "secret" tips, etc.

Now it's basically just a preview/review magazine with a few drops of nostalgia mixed in.

First Nintendo Power I read had a walkthrough for Castlevania: Circle of the Moon and Super Mario Advance. It just so happened I had bought those two games when I first got my hands on the Game Boy Advance. I held on to that particular issue like it was the only copy of the Holy Bible left on the planet. The interwebz has since been my game guide, but I'll never forget how impressed I was, or how much I got out of each issue that I bought afterwards.

NOOOO! I was a subscriber for years, as a child! Just yesterday, I was cleaning out some stuff and found a ton of issues, and was considering re-subscribing! I even checked to see if it's available digitally (it's not, though other FutureUS stuff is)!

I never cared about the newspaper/magazine industry decline... until today.

Nintendo Power was the highlight of my month when I was in middle school in the early '00s... though I concede that the modern internet has basically eliminated the need for it. RIP, I'll never forget the running gag of the editor who was always a slime plushie in photographs and I'll always be appreciative that it was a kid-friendly publication that was not excessively kiddie.

Actually, here's a memory for you. There was a new boy in our neighborhood who had moved here from Guatemala and did not yet speak any English. He came and sat down next to me and pointed at the magazine and we discovered that we had some words in common already: "Mario" and "Zelda". He was a friend for many years after that.

I loved this back in the late 80s early 90s, but I got a subscription 7 years ago or something to get some free guide and well, it was garbage. "Surprisingly", every game reviewed was good-to-great range, and pumped up everything that it came into contact with.

My sister and I subscribed for a few years starting with the Dragon Warrior giveaway. While I enjoyed the publication, I always felt a little let-down when their game strategies only took you through the first couple of levels and ignoring the harder parts of the game where an actual walkthrough would be helpful. Since these were pre-Internet days, that kind of info would have been valuable.

The actual dedicated guides they had were pretty nice though.

I recall lucking out on a free game when they were doing the 'collector' cards thing - I don't remember the specifics, but if you got certain collection of cards (these were packaged in each magazine) you would win a free game. On the last month of the promotion, I pieced together a winning set with help from a friend who gave me a couple of his cards and won a free copy of NCAA Basketball on SNES. Crappy game, but it was free!

Looking back, it's easy to see the magazine was essentially an advertisement for Nintendo games by Nintendo, but it was an entertaining read for a kid and helped you find out about new stuff coming out and what was popular at the time (Top 30 list).

I paid for it indirectly. I would wait until there Nintendo had a game guide that I wanted and you got it free with a paid subscription. For me the $15 was the price of the guide and the magazine was the freebee. Not true but I looked at like that. Much of the time, the magazine was ok but if I wasn't interested in any of the games, I quickly thumbed through it and it was soon thrown out. I'd let the magazine lapse until there was another guide I wanted and then I would repeat the process. Years of that. I finally stopped altogether about 6 years ago.

My first subscription to it came with a free copy of Dragon Warrior (I almost said Dragon Age). That was the game that got me into RPG's. Moved onto Final Fantasy and then onto other RPG's from there. I just could not get enough of them. I used to have every copy that I received, but got rid of them in high school. I wish that I had kept the subscription going and kept the magazines themselves too.

I do think that Nintendo should just suck it up and re-absorb the magazine. Take it as a loss, because it could be a good promotional item. They just need to adapt to both physical media and digital media better. Like MaximumPC has done.

It probably wouldn't be a good idea to look back at how much of the advice in the magazine was bad or even outright wrong (use Giant swords against Giants!). I liked how they would publish cheat codes and FAQs though.

The idea of getting an unbiased review from the magazine is laughable though. I still remember that claymation fighting game for the SNES (with the evil circus), and how the magazine just gushed over the beautiful screenshots. I then rented the game and discovered that the actual game was significantly worse than Street Fighter 2 and the screenshots in the magazine represented just about all of the frames of animation that were actually completed. A kick in that game consisted of a leg appearing in front of the model for a few frames, and then disappearing, like one of those old Tiger electronics games.

I also remember their walkthrough of Battletoads that stopped at the speederbike level.

I got the first issue for free after mailing in a subscription card for the Nintendo Newsletter. I have a lot of nostalgic memories from the first few issues. I read it exclusively until I picked up the first issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly a year or so later, after which I never bought another issue of Nintendo Power.

I subscribed for about 10 years, starting at issue 20, when they gave away a free copy of Dragon Warrior Like everyone says, it was great for a while, providing detailed maps and tips and fun pull-out posters. But eventually they yanked some of the best features (e.g. "Classified Information"), loaded with ads and "previews", and just gave up on having any depth to the coverage. I remember being disappointed in the Chrono Trigger coverage (clearly among the best of its generation). Then when the N64 era hit, they couldn't do maps so well for 3D worlds. I'm amazed they even kept going after that.

NP probably still has the best collection of fan-art envelopes in the universe, though.

I had no idea it was still being published. I remember spending hours pouring over those old mags and trying to pull off the things they said were possible. I vaguely remember the Nester(?) comics too. It's wild to think about what a huge value those things were. Now companies sell these crappy "strategy guides" for $20 or $30.

Video game reviews in general suffer from a lack of integrity these days, but NP never really made any bones about being a corporate cheerleader; Nintendo-developed games routinely got better ratings.

I remember working at a call center in Laramie, Wyoming when I was in college, around '93, selling Nintendo Power. I held a monthly sales record for the most subscriptions sold mainly due to not following the new rule of pushing subs and renewals via credit card and telling people that the could still pay with a check. I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't sell someone here (or their mother) a sub

My first subscription to it came with a free copy of Dragon Warrior (I almost said Dragon Age). That was the game that got me into RPG's. Moved onto Final Fantasy and then onto other RPG's from there. I just could not get enough of them. I used to have every copy that I received, but got rid of them in high school. I wish that I had kept the subscription going and kept the magazines themselves too.

I do think that Nintendo should just suck it up and re-absorb the magazine. Take it as a loss, because it could be a good promotional item. They just need to adapt to both physical media and digital media better. Like MaximumPC has done.

Dragon Warrior was my first exposure to RPG's. Tried to play it again a few years ago, holy crap was that a grind. For very little payoff.

Yeah GI is the way it is because they're a subsidiary of GameStop; nothing more nothing less. I never really purchased Nin Power but I know quite a few people who did back in the day. I was more saddened last year with the shuttering of GamePro as I had their magazine since 1998.

I also got my subscription to NP through their Dragon Warrior promotion. I still remember circa 1990 when I would wait with baited breath for these things to show up in my mailbox. The coverage leading up to the SNES release was especially exciting. The screenshots of those 16-bit graphics were RADICAL!